“It felt really good to bring a win to my coach and my teammates. It felt like all my time and efforts at practicing paid off,” Lee said. “The key to success is to be consistent because most of the time, it’s not killing the ball or smashing the ball, it’s about just passing it back to the other side for the point.”

“It’s really important to communicate with your partner. Just to talk about the next play or just to offer encouragement when you know your partner is having a bad day. You just [have] to offer reinforcement and let them know it’s fine and things will get better,” Howell said.

Since it was Senior Day, all nine seniors were starters. Varsity coach Lee Shiomoto later substituted doubles players juniors Samuel Liu and Gavin Lee in the second round. Mai was the only player to win all three of his sets 6-0.

“Tennis is usually an individual sport, but having the team aspect in team tennis showed me how competitive, suspenseful, dramatic and exhilarating tennis can be,” Mai said. “[Senior Day] was just a really humbling experience and time on the court knowing that the people I love were watching me compete.”